A wide variety of different wireless devices have been developed, including wireless network devices, wireless telephones (e.g., cordless and cellular telephones), and wireless controllers (e.g., wireless computer mice and wireless video game controllers). In order to accommodate multiple wireless devices within the same coverage area, the spectral bandwidth that is designated for the coverage area is divided into multiple frequency channels. Wireless devices within the coverage area communicate over respective ones of the frequency channels. Unused (or unoccupied) frequency channels are assigned to the wireless devices in the coverage area in accordance with a predetermined channel assignment strategy.
Some wireless devices are configured to communicate over a single frequency channel. Other wireless devices include switches that allow their users to select different frequency channels manually. Still other wireless communication devices include channel selectors that select frequency channels for wireless communications automatically. The channel selectors typically include a circuit that sequentially scans through all of the pre-allocated frequency channels for unused ones of the frequency channels.
The process of sequentially scanning through the pre-allocated frequency channels tends to be slow. In addition, existing automated channel selector implementations are large and expensive, making them less suitable for many mobile wireless applications and price-sensitive consumer wireless applications, such as wireless telephony and wireless controllers.